Linda Brooks Davis -- Overcoming Family Difficulties

Author Linda Brooks Davis

Linda Brooks Davis, welcome to Overcoming With God. I truly enjoyed meeting you at the ACFW in Nashville in 2016! What a sweet lady you are! Would you tell us about the one of the most difficult things in your life you have had to overcome, with God’s help?

The greatest trial of my 71 years is one our family is experiencing now. Minor children are involved, and the terrible case is still in the courts, so I’m not free to share details.However, I can “sew around the edges” a bit by sharing some ways in which the Lord has dealt with me. 

Once upon a time I believed I lived in a country blessed by the inalienable right of freedom of religion. I thought rearing children according to parents’ Christian principles wasn’t simply duty but a U.S. Constitution-guaranteed right. Naively, I believed Christian rearing was sacrosanct within the walls of a Christian home. Tragically, this isn’t necessarily so. Furthermore, I’ve learned godlessness has so invaded our institutions of government--even in a “conservative” state--that the agency and its arms tasked to protect children can become a Christian family’s worst nightmare.

I’ve learned the world’s ungodliness has so invaded this agency and the courts that right is labeled wrong and wrong is labeled right. I’ve learned testimonies of those who curse the name of Jesus are accepted as truth. And the testimonies of Christian parents--the father, a godly pastor/counselor--is not only suspect but declared a lie and the home’s teaching about the difference between “law and grace” labeled “abuse.”

   

And God has taught me some things about myself. I come from a long line of hard-charging women who wait for no one to act for them, double down when the way grows tough, and fight every ol’ demon in Hell for their children, as my mother said.

Recently, the Lord has shown me pride lurking in the shadows of self-sufficiency; bitterness and anger--better yet, rage--boiling in the teapot of my heart; and idolatry as I’ve gazed upon certain loved ones and grasped their hands before His.

What passages in the Bible have been most helpful to you in those times?

I’m reminded in Zechariah 2:13 (AMP) that the Lord is roused in my behalf, so I’d best settle down: “Be still before the LORD, all mankind; for He is roused from His holy habitation [in response to His persecuted people].”

What helped you get through or helped you cope with this difficulty?

As the Lord would have it, the theme verse for The Calling of Ella McFarland, 2 Corinthians 12:9, has become my life’s theme through this ordeal “… ‘My grace is sufficient for you [My lovingkindness and My mercy are more than enough--always available--regardless of the situation]; for [My] power is being perfected [and is completed and shows itself most effectively] in [your] weakness.’ Therefore, I will all the more gladly boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ [may completely enfold me and] may dwell in me.” (Amplified Version)

Pride and self-sufficiency have no place in the weakness in which Christ’s power is manifest; anger and bitterness exclude trust in God; and only open, empty hands can be filled with His.

Disability friendliness: Is this latest release available in audio format or do you have any other works available on audio?  Do your e-books have audio capability? Do you have any in large print?

 

My novel, TheCalling of Ella McFarland, and novella collection, A Rock Creek ChristmasCollection (A Christmas to Remember and A Christmas Measure of Love), will be available in audible form in the next few months.

In this latest work, do you have any topics useful for bibliotherapy, or therapeutic influence through reading about a disorder or situation?

I’ve just completed my second full-length novel. The working title, Where Healing Waters Flow, provides a clue to its theme. It picks up with Lily, one of the secondary characters in The Calling of Ella McFarland. The year is 1914, and this young woman who was horribly abused as a child finds a type of healing she hasn’t expected.

One of my favorite verses is Psalm 3:3 (KJV): “But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.” It’s the perfect theme verse for Lily’s story.

The Calling of Ella McFarland blurb:

1905 brings hope of Oklahoma statehood and the woman’s suffrage debate is raging, forcing Ella McFarland to make decisions about her faith, family, and aspirations. When she comes to the rescue of a young, abused sharecropper’s daughter, her calling takes shape in ways she never imagined. Education is Ella’s passion, but a new love is budding in her heart, and new purpose calls. Can she find God’s will amid the tumultuous storm that surrounds her?

CFP: I've been wanting to read this story for a long time, it sounds so good! And it's a multiple award-winning novel! Congrats, Linda!

Question you’d like to ask readers:

I would love to hear readers answer the questions I’ve been asked above. Sharing one another’s struggles and triumphs lightens loads while it strengthens for the road ahead.

Giveaway: The Calling of Ella McFarland Answer Linda's question, above, for a chance to win a copy.

Review of Jan Karon's Audiobook "To Be Where You Are"

Another Winner!

To Be Where You Are (Penguin Random House Audio. 2017)
by Jan Karon

John McDonough does the narration on this new novel from Jan Karon. I was so delighted to go back to beloved Mitford. This time we get more of Dooley's story. With scenes from the "point of view" of almost every Mitford character, diehard enthusiasts like me will be in seventh heaven.  John McDonough "is" Father Tim. I couldn't associate any other narrator with this wonderful character.

Bibliotherapy aspects: Adoption, infertility, aging, family, faith.

Do yourself a huge favor and purchase the audiobook now! I purchased mine through audible.com as a download. This book is also available in multiple formats.

Naomi Rawlings Shares About Thankfulness in the Midst of Trials--Lyme Disease

Author Naomi Rawlings

Thanks for having me back today. Last time I was here, I did an interview and talked about the isolated place in which my family and I live and how God had called my husband to pastor a small church in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. I also talked about my debut book, Sanctuary for a Lady.

Now I’m back again, this time to tell you about the second book in the Belanger Family Saga, The Soldier’s Secrets, and to share some of the ways in which both my family and I have grown over the past two years.

Growth, by and large, is a rather ordinary word, and we usually tend to think of it in a pleasant way. Sometimes growth can be pleasant and fun, like riding a bike for the first time or getting your driver’s license. But growth isn’t always happy and easy. Sometimes skinned knees accompany learning to ride a bike, and accidents accompany getting your driver’s license.

For my family, the past two years have been full of growth, but it hasn’t been a happy, pleasant kind of experience. 2013 is one of those years I’ll remember for the rest of my life. Kind of like the people who lived through the Great Depression will always remember 1929 and the people who lived through WWII will always remember 1941 and 1945.

So what huge disaster happened this year? My son’s Lyme disease came back. And when I say came back, I mean the infectious disease literally flooded his body for a second time. It was supposed to be gone. We’d discovered the tick bite three years earlier, got the positive blood test, and treated him according to our pediatrician’s and the Center for Disease Control’s recommendations. And he did get better for three years.

Until he didn’t.

Lyme is a complicated disease, wrapped in a bunch of political and HMO crap, and then ignored by most doctors and insurance companies. I won’t go into the details here, though these articles on the Huffington Post (link to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/c-m-rubin/the-global-search-for-edu_b_4244055.html )  and New Yorker (link to http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/07/01/130701fa_fact_specter?utm_source=thanksgiving+2013&utm_campaign=T-giving&utm_medium=email ) will give you a hint.  (Severe cases can leave people bedridden and riddled with seizures, while therapy involves years of IV antibiotics.) Most people with Lyme disease are indefinitely poor because the disease is very hard and expensive to treat, and insurance companies won’t cover beyond a month’s worth of treatment. 

In short, Lyme disease is not something I would wish on anybody, ever.

But God allowed my son to contract it for some reason I still don’t truly understand. So what am I to do? I suppose I have two options: I could get bitter, or I could be thankful.

I choose to be thankful.

“For what?” You might ask. What do you have to be thankful for?

Well, I’m thankful for my family.

I don’t have my family right now, at least not in the healthy way I had them at this time two years ago. I also don’t have the thousands of dollars we’ve spent treating my son over the past twelve months. And I don’t have a dependable vehicle—my car is 13 years old and riddled with problems. I don’t have matching furniture in my bedroom (one of my dressers is pea green—who paints a dresser pea green???) I don’t have clean house at the moment. I don’t even have paint on the upstairs landing.

So how can I be thankful that my seven year old has an infectious disease that seems incurable?

By looking at my heart instead of my situation.

Do you remember those old MasterCard commercials and the things that they used to call “Priceless”? Those moments when our kids laugh. Those times when our spouses pull us close and kiss us until we’re dizzy and the kids are making gagging noises. Those instants when your child catches a frog he’s chased around the yard and his face lights up into a grin.

Laughter and kisses and frogs are not paid medical bills, debt-free houses, and functioning vehicles. But they matter. They’re important. They add up. And we can choose to be thankful for them.

That’s a novel thought, isn’t it? That we can CHOOSE to be thankful. That thankfulness doesn’t revolve around the number of things we own or the amount of money we’ve stashed in our savings, IRAs, and stocks. That thankfulness starts and ends in our hearts.

I don’t need a matching bedroom set and new car to be thankful. I don’t even need a healthy son to be thankful.

And neither do you.

Because laughter and kisses and frogs count for something, and instead of thinking about all the things I don’t have to be thankful for, I’m thinking about the things I DO have.

The Soldier's Secrets

Bio:

Naomi Rawlings:

A mother of two young boys, Naomi Rawlings spends her days picking up, cleaning, playing and, of course, writing. Her husband pastors a small church in Michigan’s rugged Upper Peninsula, where her family shares its ten wooded acres with black bears, wolves, coyotes, deer and bald eagles. Naomi and her family live only three miles from Lake Superior, where the scenery is beautiful and they average 200 inches of snow per winter. To learn more about Naomi and her novels, visit her website at www.NaomRawlings.com. You can also find her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/author.naomirawlings.

Giveaway: This week we will be giving away a copy of each of Naomi's two new releases (international winners ebook choice only.) "Like" Naomi's Facebook page and put FB in your comment and answer this question: What are you most thankful for? Leave your email address so we can contact you.